The Days That Follow
by Caitiann
Summary: A series of one shots from different Disney Princesses as they deal with the trauma from their respective stories. Literally all of the Disney Princesses are at least at risk for PTSD, and I want to explore that. Might go to M at some point. Aurora and now Anna are up.
1. Aurora

**We're going to be dealing with adult themes here, so a general trigger warning to start with. I'll try and give more specific ones, as needed, per chapter.**

 **I don't own any Disney properties. Except a couple of Jasmine dolls.**

Aurora pulled the brush through her long, golden curls as she watched herself in the mirror. The heavy wood of the brush, with its intricate fuscia gems, provided a comforting, rhythmic tug. Though she had been sitting here for some time, she couldn't help but be struck by just how un-royal she looked. The tiara was sitting on its stand by her bed, and the long gowns had been replaced by a robe. True, it was silvery silk, but it was a far cry from the crinolines of the day time. The real change, however, lay in her features. With the makeup removed, Aurora still knew there was beauty to be found in her face, her features were dainty, and unblemished. But her otherwise flawless visage was marred by one overwhelming feature- the large, dark bags that settled underneath her eyes.

It was fine in the daytime of course; no small amount of makeup covered the bags, and thus her secret. Aurora hadn't had a full night's sleep since _the incident._

It wasn't that she hadn't TRIED certainly; though getting in the bed itself was an exercise in control. But the fear settled in her chest and took over her breathing when she remembered the time she couldn't wake up.

Everyone had tried to be so helpful. Prince Philip had held her, even though the embrace felt more like constraints to her. It wasn't that she didn't love him, but her need to have autonomy over her body after having it ripped from her was overriding her need for physical comfort; this of course frustrated him greatly.

 _It's not that big a deal._

 _You need to get over it, this was three years ago._

 _This is all in your head; and you're making it worse by not sleeping. If you would just sleep it wouldn't bother you so much._

She didn't even respond to his last statement, shrouded in misunderstanding and ridicule, though it was. She knew he meant well. They all meant well. The fairies had even brewed her a potion to help her sleep. She had laughed derisively through the tears when she had been handed the sparkling purple potion, and watched as it swirled in its glass jar.

 _You want me to use magic. To sleep._

They had nodded eagerly at her, oblivious to the obvious parallel Aurora had been trying to draw. It had been Malificent's magic that had gotten her here in the first place. The witch's spell which made her afraid to sleep now. But Aurora had smiled, the bitterness fighting to get through, and accepted it with the grace her station demanded.

The bottle sat unused, collecting dust, on her armoire. Her eyes flicked to it now, though she had never once been tempted by it. What startled her was the clock that sat next to it.

She sighed to herself. She had been brushing her hair for two hours.

Aurora took a moment to be thankful that Philip was off on some quest again. Not that she didn't miss her husband, but she was grateful that he wasn't here to chide her for her avoidance techniques. Although, she knew that she probably deserved the chiding. The same techniques had meant that she hadn't slept a single wink the night previous.

This concerned her greatly. Not because it was the first night she had gone without sleep, far from it. But if she ever went too long without sleep, the next night was a battle- a literal battle as she fought against her body.

That was the worst part of this lasting curse. She was unable to stay awake forever. There was always going to be a moment when her body's survival instinct kicked in, and forced her to sleep. It scared her so much to know there was a point when she would not have power over her own body. That it would take over and shut her down. It scared her to death.

She would shudder awake, sometimes after moments, sometimes after hours, and her body would immediately wrack with sobs.

Aurora winced in anticipation of the long night ahead of her. The day wasn't so bad. There was an endless litany of meaningless tasks to complete to fill her mind. Even if the day was slow, she had been known to sneak out in her old clothes, and work among the townspeople, who toiled restlessly to clean up after the ruins of the battle. Yes, it had been years, but there was still devastation everywhere. It heartened her to know her pain was not the worst, and that she had the power, at least in some circumstances, to work against it.

She turned to face her bed, and begrudgingly took in its splendor. It had been a present from Philip's mother on the occasion of their wedding, which frankly Aurora had found a little strange. The implications were rather unsettling, after all. But she had no interest in starting a quarrel with her newly minted mother in law, so she had taken the present in stride. It was a deep, dark mahogany with intricate engravings of leaves and trees that swirled up the bed posts into a canopy. Deep emerald and gold bedding was neatly arranged with a mountain of pillows. The bed LOOKED inviting, that simply wasn't the issue. But even when she slept she dreamed of drowning in the pillows, being hung by the silk sheets from the canopy. It wasn't the bed that was her enemy, it was what it represented: sleep.

Still, she had read every tome in her collection. She had caught up on correspondence. The only thing she hadn't done was take up sewing again, but even the dullest of her maids had understood that aversion. There was nothing left to do, but… sleep.

She wanted to try. She needed to try. Aurora hung up her short robe and gingerly pulled back the heavy blankets. She didn't bother turning out the lights. It had just been easier to keep them on, because she knew she would awake in a panic at some point. Having the ability to scan the lit room quickly had proved an important ability.

Still, she crawled under the cold sheets. The temperatures equalized, and warmed against her body. It was only now that she realized how achingly silent the room was. She found a strange, if short lived comfort in it.

There were too many pillows. Aurora was vaguely aware that she was already panicking as she threw pillow after daintily embroidered pillow to the ground. She kicked off the heaviest of the quilts so that only a thin sheet covered her. That was better.

Aurora sighed as she forced her body to relax in the bed. How long had it been since she had actively tried to sleep? Mostly it had been stolen naps when here body had betrayed her here and there, quickly chased by panic. But she knew she needed the sleep. Her image in the mirror haunted her. She had looked pale, and gaunt, and she knew something had to change.

She forced her eyes shut, and tried to even her breathing. The more she focused on it, the more labored her breathing became. The tighter she held her eyes shut, the more shadows danced on the periphery of her awareness. Dragons and sorceresses, and spinning wheels with sharp needles that grew, and grew, and grew.

She sat up in bed breathing roughly. Her fingers clutched at the sheets beneath her. She cursed under her breath, words that only threaded her consciousness in moments like these. She went through the rote of calming herself.

 _She can't hurt you anymore._

 _You will wake up if you go to sleep._

 _You need sleep to be at your best, and protect yourself._

Her breathing slowed in her chest. She reached to the ground, and pulled up one of the pillows from the ground. She pulled it close to her, wrapping herself around it, even as tears slid slowly down her cheeks and onto the pillow below.

It was going to be a long night.

 **Please give me some feedback on what you guys think of this topic. I have some upcoming chapters in mind, Mulan is obvious, Rapunzel. But I would love suggestions. Thank you all for taking the time to read. 3**


	2. Anna

**Thank you to all who reviewed, and shared their thoughts about potential stories.**

 **It's important to note, of course, that all of these stories are at least slightly OOC. Because Disney is a magical fairy land where everything is solved in roughly 90 minutes. As much as I wish life were that way, alas, it is not so. I'll talk a little more about Anna and her abandonment issues in particular in the A/N.**

 **I hope you guys enjoy, and remember I am not Walt Disney or a descendant, so I have no claim to his property.**

"Anna, I think I need to get away for a few days. Spend some time with my family."

Anna swallowed before she turned to face Kristoff. She had expected this, but she was surprised at the twinge of pain she felt despite her preparation. Still, she painted her princess smile on her face and turned to regard him.

"Is everything alright?" she asked, careful to include the chipper lilt in her voice that she was well known for, regardless of how manufactured it might be.

Kristoff nodded, gracing her with his halfcocked smile. "Yeah, of course. Just need to get out of the castle, get some fresh air for a bit. You understand."

Anna felt her nose crinkle imperceptibly. Oh yes. She understood all too well. Her smile never faltered. "Have fun then, okay?" She threw her arms around Kristoff's neck, because that was what she was expected to do. But when he pulled her body into his own, even she couldn't hide her shudder.

She pulled back and shrugged, blinking her doe eyes up at him. "Cold." She explained succinctly, and he didn't question her further.

They talked for a few more minutes, but Anna felt him pulling away from the room as hard as he could. She was grateful, her emotions were much closer to the surface than she had anticipated, and she wanted him out.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Anna ripped the sparkly engagement ring from her fingers, grinding it into the mattress with her hand. The diamonds cut up into her palm, yet she pushed harder. How stupid she had been, to allow herself to think this would be different. Everything she dared to love had left her.

She had received this cold lesson many times in her life. Elsa left her –more than once- of her own volition. At least her parents' abandonment wasn't by choice. And then there was Hans, the first person she had dared to love. The first time he had looked at her, she felt weightless. He was perfect, and he seemed to know her better than she knew herself.

 _Oh, Anna. If only somebody loved you._

Of course it had been a lie. Anna mentally berated herself. _Love is always, always a lie. Love is the lie we tell ourselves to help us get through life. It isn't real._

It was the same mantra she had repeated to herself many, many times in her life. She said it like a prayer any time the flame of hope flickered in her mind. Any time Kristoff touched her, or told her he loved her. Any time she was close to thinking she could be happy, even for a moment; it was the plea that left her lips. _It isn't real._

Of course, it sounded like a joke to her. Her sister's love had saved her life, of course. But the great cosmic joke was that it was the same "love" that had injured her to the point of death in the first place. And it was Anna's blind hope, the part of her she despised the most, that had gotten her in that castle to chase a sister that clearly had no use or desire to be around her.

Her internal self-flagellation only intensified as tears started to cloud her vison.

"Goddammit." She muttered to herself, annoyed and embarrassed at her emotions getting the best of her.

 _You don't need him, remember? You don't need anybody._ Anna gently reminded herself. Hadn't she been making it on her own for years? She had been spoiled as a child, to have a best friend in Elsa. Once that was ripped away from her ( _as all good things are_ , she reiterated) she had raised herself. Her parents had been far too busy dealing with Elsa's… uniqueness, that they had barely spared her a second thought. And all of the servants, including her beloved nanny Dagmar had been summarily dismissed.

Anna remembered waking up one morning, not long after everything had changed. The entire castle was different- it was dark, and cold. She had woken up, and found no one. She had read, for a while, but hunger soon overtook her and she wandered into the kitchen. There were no cooks of course; it would have been a waste for a family of four. And later, she would understand that each addition to the staff increased their risk.

She had pulled up a chair to the stove, since she couldn't reach the knobs on her own, and she had carefully mixed eggs in a pan, as she had watched their old chef do a few times. The toast, at least, had been easy. And she had even found some hot chocolate mix in the pantry, her favorite. The eggs had been terrible, the toast slightly burned and dry, and the hot chocolate too watery. But it was hers; she had made it without help, and she ate every last crumb.

The memory heartened her, even as she clung to one of the overly frilly throw pillows on her ostentatious bed. A treacherous part of her brain reminded her that the castle probably WAS a little oppressive to someone who had lived almost exclusively outside his entire life. That he was just leaving, he wasn't necessarily leaving her. And she might have believed it, but for the thrumming in her heart, that worked its way through her entire body, swallowed in the pit that was her stomach which reminded her that she'd been here before. She knew what allowing oneself to feel, to rely on someone else resulted in, and she had done it anyway. She had no one to blame but herself.

Anna sat up suddenly on her bed. Kristoff might not be the first one to hurt her, but he could certainly be the last. The solution was simple, and she should have stuck to it all along. She just needed to turn off that side of her again.

She clenched her eyes shut. Even Anna, at her most verklempt knew it was a task easier said than done. She loved Kristoff, as much as she had tried not to. He made her happy, as hard as she tried not to be. But still, it ended here, with her eyes stinging from wet mascara. Well, never again.

So by the time a servant knocked on her door a few minutes later, Anna's eyes were dry, and her chin was proudly pointed in the air. She descended the stairs with as much as grace as she could muster to meet her sister.

"Hello Anna!" Elsa grinned happily at her, and Anna smiled coolly at her sister, as she took her place in the chair adjacent to her.

At her unenthusiastic response, Elsa's eyes narrowed on her nearly imperceptibly. "Anna, are you alright?" she asked softly, reaching out to place a hand on Anna's own.

Before their skin connected, Anna moved to her wine glass, taking a sip as an excuse.

"I'm fine, Elsa. I'm always fine."

 **I always felt like Anna was a lot stronger than the movie credited her for. Elsa took up all the angst, so they tried to balance it with Anna being a little goofy, which is fine, it's probably a more enjoyable movie that way. She always just bounced back up no matter how many times she got knocked down, so the twist here is kind of just like, well, what if getting up wasn't so easy for her?**

 **My beta had a few questions I feel like I should address, though I hope the story covered it. This is Anna's defense mechanism. She's been abandoned so many times, that it doesn't matter if Kristoff actually leaves or not. She expects him too, and she shuts down. It's easier for her to feel nothing, than to feel that relentless pain again.**

 **I'm sorry these little one shots will never be a nice pick me up at the end of the day. But I feel like these stories are important. I hope you guys find something in them that touches you. I've already kind of started stories for Mulan and Rapunzel, so those are in the shoot.**

 **I'm always open to your ideas and thoughts, so leave a review! Thank you for reading!**


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